“The Lasting Impact of Gay Men on Food: James Beard, Richard Olney, and Craig Claiborne at Least...”

New York University’s Fales Library, home of one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious collections in food studies, will host a panel discussion entitled, “The Lasting Impact of Gay Men on Food: James Beard, Richard Olney, and Craig Claiborne at Least...” October 12, 2017 from 4-6pm at the Fales Library, third floor, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South (at LaGuardia Place). [Subways A, C,E,B,D,M to West 4th Street; 6 line to Astor Place; R train to 8th Street.]

The panel will look at three luminaries of 20th Century western culture and living. James Beard, the “host with the most” was the food world’s Pearl Mesta; Richard Olney went off on his own to perfect the local, seasonal traditions of French grandmothers – thereby changing forever the trajectory of American food; and Craig Claiborne was the original queer eye for the straight guy and the Southern Gentleman arbiter of taste.

“They were each rigorous, oddly generous, and specific, said Clark Wolf, founder and president of Clark Wolf Company and the panel’s host-moderator. “And they loved the exquisite. But now? Is a gay man’s viewpoint still helpful, relevant, and revolutionary? Join some very smart and lively fellows for an afternoon chat about a tasty topic.”

· Host: Clark Wolf, founder and president of Clark Wolf Company, a New York City and Sonoma County, California based food and restaurant consulting firm.

MEDIA ONLY: Reporters interested in covering or attending the event must contact Christopher James at 212-998-6876 or email christopher.james@nyu.edu.

Suggested donation: $10. All gifts support the Marion Nestle Food Studies Collection. To RSVP or for more information about the event, please write to rsvp.bobst@nyu.edu with your name and title/date of the event. Reception to follow.

“The Lasting Impact of Gay Men on Food: James Beard, Richard Olney, and Craig Claiborne at Least...” is sponsored by New York University Fales Library; Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health; and Clark Wolf.

About Fales Library and Special Collections:

The Fales Library is housed in the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library on Washington Square, flagship of NYU’s global library system. Fales Library, comprising nearly 358,000 volumes and over 11,000 linear feet of archive and manuscript materials, houses the Fales Collection of rare books and manuscripts in English and American literature, the Downtown Collection, the Marion Nestle Food Studies Collection and the general special collections of the NYU Libraries. The Fales Collection was given to NYU in 1957 by DeCoursey Fales in memory of his father, Haliburton Fales. It is especially strong in English literature from the middle of the 18th century to the present, documenting developments in the novel. The Marion Nestle Food Studies Collection is a vast collection of books and manuscripts documenting food and foodways with particular emphasis on New York City. The Downtown Collection, founded in 1994, documents the downtown New York art, performance, and literary scenes from 1975 to the present and is extremely rich in archival holdings, including extensive film and video.

The NYU Division of Libraries is a global system comprising five libraries in Manhattan and one each in Brooklyn, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai. Its flagship, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library on Washington Square, receives 2.6 million visits annually. For more information about the NYU Libraries, please visit http://library.nyu.edu